


He Likes His Coffee Black

by HappyJuicyfruit



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst with a Happy Ending, Baker Derek Hale, Barista Derek, Cancer, Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings, Drug Use, M/M, Sick Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 00:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyJuicyfruit/pseuds/HappyJuicyfruit
Summary: Derek loves his new job at Hales Coffee Beans. He loves Beacon Hills, and all the nice customers that come in to his shop.There is one customer he hates though, the annoying pothead Stiles Stilinski.





	He Likes His Coffee Black

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Fandom Cares bid winner MotherofMello, who requested an angsty coffee shop AU with a happy ending. I hope this is angsty enough for you! :) 
> 
> This was supposed to be much shorter, but apparently I don't know how to do short! Whoops! 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Warnings: Stiles is in the late stages of cancer in this fic, he vomits blood at one point.  
> Also Derek assaults Stiles before realizing he has cancer.

Derek and his sister had moved back to Beacon Hills a year ago. A lot had happened that drove the move: Peter, their uncle, had woken from a comatose state. Cora, their sister, had arrived miraculously alive back in the town searching for them. Their home land was officially being condemned by the county unless they did something about it.

 

So they had done something about it.

 

Now, Peter was recovering in their newly rebuilt family home. Cora was entering her senior year at Beacon Hills High. And Laura and Derek had started their own business.

 

Hales Coffee Beans.

 

It had been slow at first, but word passed fast in a small town. They were now known for having the best muffins and most creative drinks. Derek was proud of that, mostly because he made the muffins.

 

Beacon Hills was a nice town. Small and quaint. The people here were friendly, and most were quick in choosing what they wanted.  For the most part Derek was able to deal with the customers without much fuss.

 

Except for one annoying customer. _Stiles_.

 

Stiles Stilinski had wandered into the shop it’s first week, and had apparently decided he would never leave.

 

He came in everyday, always at closing time. He _constantly_ smelled like he’d rolled on marijuana leaves before arriving, and he _always_ stared at the display case with vacant eyes for at _least_ 5 minutes before finally deciding what he wanted. Despite the fact that he always ordered a coffee, black, and some form of muffin. He would then sit and eat his food at a snail's pace until Derek was forced to kick him out.

 

Every. Single. Day.

 

That wasn't even the worst part. Oh no, the worst part was that Stiles was a _talker_. He chatted to Derek while he made his decision, he moaned at Derek while he ate his food, he teased Derek as he being was kicked out. He was constantly talking, no matter what Derek did or said! Derek had full on growled at him once, and Stiles had barely seemed to notice.

 

When he had complained about this to Laura, however, she had been less than sympathetic. Apparently Derek had to be ‘nicer’ to the customers. Even if the customer was an annoying, pothead, _jerk_.

 

Sometimes he wished he had Laura’s morning shift… but that would mean dealing with all the morning people, and missing out on the fun baking hour he got after he closed the shop for the night.

 

Though, honestly, he should probably just stick to baking in the first place. He could not wait until Cora was finished school and could take over Derek’s afternoon shift. Because currently, they couldn’t afford to hire anyone else.

 

Now it was five to five, and Derek had just finished cleaning the espresso machine when Stiles sauntered in. The bastard knew Derek flipped that sign over at exactly 5 pm. It was like he came in at the last minute on _purpose_.

 

He smelled like the average stoner just surfacing from their parents basement, wincing in the late afternoon sun. He looked pale, but he always looked pale. He was swimming in the shirt he had on, but he always wore clothes too big for him.

 

Stiles coughed weakly as his eyes drifted over Derek’s muffin case. Derek glared at him.

 

“What do you want?” Derek asked through clenched teeth. Maybe this time Stiles wouldn’t take a million years to decide… but probably not.

 

Stiles blinked a few times before his eyes swiveled over to look at Derek, he coughed weakly before shooting him a sly smile. “Any recommendations?”

 

Here they go again.

 

“You know my recommendations.”

 

“But I love to hear them. You get so into it, man. You should really just forget the coffee part, open up a bakery instead.”

 

Yes, he wished he could. Laura had wanted to open up a health food store though, so, compromise.

 

He chose not to say any of that to Stiles though. “Chocolate chip, it’s what you usually end up getting anyway.”

 

Stiles nodded slowly, his smile falling off his face. He didn’t choose the chocolate chip. Derek waited, probably a tad impatiently, for two more minutes before Stiles opened his mouth again.

 

“Can I try part of a lemon square?”

 

Derek narrowed his eyes at him, “no. You’ve tried the lemon squares. Order something and get out.”

 

Stiles started to grin again, but it fell off his face before it was even fully formed. If he were anyone else, Derek would have been worried. But since he was Stiles, Derek just wondered how much pot the idiot had smoked that day.

 

Probably too much, judging by his vacant expression.

 

“Stiles, choose something or get out.”

 

Stiles shook his head, “sorry, I just - usually this is all I can eat, but I just don’t know if I can stomach any of it today.”

 

Derek frowned, was that supposed to be an insult? “What is that supposed to mean?”

 

Stiles opened his mouth, but quickly shut it with a shake of his head. He staggered backwards and sat down heavily on of their wooden chairs. Derek huffed angrily, glancing at the clock.

 

They had officially been closed for seven minutes now. He did not have to deal with this.

 

Derek started doing his normal closing routine, turning off all the machines and double checking they were all clean. Then he took all of the leftover baked goods still in the case and took them to the back to wrap them up for tomorrow. They weren’t fresh, but they would be 50% off. He was sure they would all be gone by the time he came into work at one.

When he came back out Stiles was still sitting at the table, head in his hands. Such a drama queen. Derek rolled his eyes at his antics.  

 

He marched passed Stiles table, stopping in front of the main entrance only long enough to flip the sign to ‘closed’ before tugging open the door. He turned to looked at Stiles pointedly, “time to leave now.”

 

Stiles completely ignored him.

 

“Stiles, come on. I know this is usually the highlight of your depressing life, but I’m tired today. Please just go.”

 

Stiles groaned into his hands, but otherwise didn’t say anything. Derek waited a few moments, really giving the kid a chance here, but he didn’t so much as budge.

 

And now Derek was getting angry.

 

“Stiles! Leave!” Derek said louder, pointing out the door.

 

Still no response.

 

Growling, Derek let go of the door and stalked towards the boy.

 

“Are you serious right now? Do you think this is funny?” He hissed, stopping in front of the kid with his arms crossed. Stiles looked like he was asleep on their table. “Jesus, I know you smoke pot for a living, but come on! Surely you understand what having a job is like? Even a little? Can you not see how annoying this might be for me?”

 

Stiles didn’t move. Derek leaned forward and slammed his hand on the table, smirking when Stiles jerked upward at the loud slam. His eyes skittered across the room before landing on Derek. He was panting slightly as he relaxed back into the chair, his hair glued to his forehead with sweat. Honestly, the kid kind of looked like shit, but that was his own fault. He shouldn’t smoke so much dope if he didn’t want to pass out in public.

 

“Derek-” Stiles croaked out, but Derek waved a hand to shut him up. He was sick of being nice to this kid, no matter what Laura might say.

 

“No, Stiles, I have had it. You are loud, you are rude, and you have no regard for out policies here. You know that every time you come in here, it’s closing time. You know I have to wait until you leave before I can go back to doing my job, yet you stay around and bother me anyway!”

 

Stiles frowned, “Derek-”

 

“No, shut up. You make this whole place smell like pot. You annoy our other customers with not only your smell, but your loud and obnoxious jokes. You come here every day just to annoy the shit out of me, and I have had it! I’ve asked you politely to leave twice now, and you full on ignored me. So that’s it, Stiles. You’re done. I’ve had it. You’re banned from the shop. No more coffee, no more muffins, no more lemon squares. That’s it!”

 

Stiles frowned at him again, but he made to move to stand. Derek glared at him when all he did was start to cough.

 

“Stiles, get out of here.”

 

Stiles shook his head, holding up a hand in a lame attempt of defense when Derek lunged toward him. Stiles winced as Derek grabbed onto his arm, though it wasn’t like he was grabbing him roughly. He was such a drama queen.

 

Derek managed to pull the guy to his feet, but they didn’t make it far before Stiles fell to the floor beside him. Derek sighed, “really? Do you have to turn everything into a joke?”

 

Derek turned to drag Stiles back up again, but paused when he saw Stiles was barely holding himself up by his arms, let alone his legs.

 

For the first time it occurred to him that this might not be another one of the stoners jokes.

 

“Stiles?” Derek asked with a frown, crouching down beside the man. Stiles groaned again, but otherwise he made no response. “Stiles, are you-“

 

Derek fell back in alarm when Stiles opened his mouth and vomited all of his floor. Though his nose was quick to pick up on the fact that the majority of what Stiles just spewed our wasn’t vomit.

 

It was blood.

 

“Fuck, Stiles, what-“

 

Stiles started coughing again, but now huge globs of blood were coming up with it. Derek watched the blood fall onto his shops clean tile floors with wide eyes.

 

Stiles groaned again, his arms shaking. Derek realized a second before it happened that his arms were about to give out - he caught the kid before he fell face first into his own bloody vomit.

 

“Jesus Christ - Stiles? Are you okay?”

 

Stiles didn’t answer. His eyes were so unfocused, Derek doubted he even heard him. His hair was even more of a mess now, and Derek finally clued into the fact that it wasn’t because Stiles was a messy stoner - but because Stiles was running a fever.

 

An incredibly high one, if even a werewolf could feel the difference.

 

He pulled out his phone and punched in 911 as Stiles passed out in his arms.

 

He hoped he wasn’t too late.

 

—

 

It had been twenty-two hours since the incident at the coffee shop. Twenty-two hours where Derek sat in an uncomfortable hospital chair, waiting to see Stiles.

 

Hours of feeling unbearably guilty.

 

Stiles father (the fucking _Sheriff_ of Beacon Hills, Derek had not seen that coming), sat beside him the whole time and told him all about Stiles long battle with cancer. Apparently the kid had been sick for years. He hadn’t even finished high school, the kid was so sick. At this point there wasn’t much else they could do for him though… the medical marijuana helped with the pain, but that was about it.

 

Stiles was dying.

 

And Derek had treated him like shit.

 

Something he felt even worse about when Stiles’ father _thanked_ him. Because apparently the best part of the kids whole day had been going to Hales Coffee Beans.

 

Derek buried his head in his hands as soon as the Sheriff left, going to check on his son again. Only family was allowed to visit until Stiles was more stable.

 

“He liked it there because you treated him like a normal person.” A voice said beside him. Derek sat up, surprised to see a kid sitting beside him. He must have been more upset than he thought, it was almost impossible to sneak up on a werewolf unless they were distracted.

 

Stiles had always been good at distracting him.. Even when he wasn’t there.

 

The kid smiled at him. He looked young, and his crooked jaw and floppy hair were not helping. Derek had no idea who this kid was though, or what he was talking about.

 

“What?”

 

“Stiles. He liked going to your shop because you had no idea how sick he was. Everyone else in town treats him like the dying Sheriff’s kid. He can’t even buy groceries without getting pity, or sympathetic looks, or whatever. He hates it. He loved going to your place because you were always glaring or yelling at him… he needed that.”

 

Derek blinked back tears. Fuck.

 

“He also purposefully egged you on, like all the time. Apparently it was funny.. Sorry about that, he can be a bit of a dick sometimes.” The kid smiled again, but he smelled sad.

 

Derek just shook his head. He had known the kid had been pulling that shit on purpose… he didn’t have it in him to blame him for it now though. Derek would have probably done the same thing if their situations were reversed. Hell, Derek had moved to the other side of the country to avoid those same sympathetic looks after the fire.

 

But Stiles didn’t really have that option.

 

“I can’t believe this is it,” the kid whispered beside him. It didn’t sound like he was talking to Derek anymore, but Derek turned to him anyway.

 

“What?”

 

“He’s my brother. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.”

 

Derek looked the kid over. He knew Stiles was sick, but he was pretty sure even if he were healthy he wouldn’t be as tanned as this kid was. Then the kid beside him rolled his eyes, and suddenly Derek could maybe see a resemblance.

 

“We may have different parents, but he’s my brother.” The kid said with determination, “I’m Scott, by the way.”

 

Derek nodded, he actually recognized the name. Stiles liked to ramble at Derek when he was placing his order after all.

 

He had more important things he had to worry about now though.

 

“What do you mean, ‘this is it?’” Derek asked, frowning.

 

Scott frowned right back at him, “well.. This is it, man. Stiles was vomiting blood, that’s a sign that he’s at the end of his fight…” his frown turned into more of a look of concern, “you knew that, right? Stiles isn’t… he’s not coming back from this.”

 

Derek turned away from Scott’s concerned expression, his mind racing. He had known Stiles was sick,had known he was dying, even, but he hadn’t really thought about the timeline…

 

“How long does he have?” Derek asked.

 

He felt Scott shrug beside him, “I don’t know, days? Hours? At this point, you can’t really-”

 

“I have to go,” Derek said as he shot out of the chair, stalking towards the exit.

 

Stiles might only had hours left, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still have a chance.

 

\--

 

“I don’t know, Derek. We decided we weren’t going to add anyone who isn’t family into our pack, are you sure about this?” Laura asked. She sounded hesitant, but they were already driving to the hospital.

 

Derek nodded beside her anyway, “yes. Stiles is smart, he’ll be a good beta… and I can’t just let him die.” He added on quietly.

 

Laura glanced over at him, “but what do you even know about this kid?”

 

Derek thought about that. He knew a lot about Stiles, actually. Stiles was a talker after all. He knew Stiles liked to play video games. He knew his best friend was Scott. He knew he owned a beat up blue Jeep because his mother had given it to him, but he never drove it… though now he realized Stiles probably hadn’t been allowed to drive due to how sick he was. Derek had assumed it was because he was high all the time.

 

He knew Stiles had dreams of traveling the world, and someday becoming a lawyer. Dreams that Derek had once thought Stiles was too lazy to achieve… he winced at the comments he had made about them.

 

He knew a lot about the man, but for some reason he didn’t feel like sharing any of it with Laura.

 

“I know he likes his coffee black.”

 

Laura snorted, shaking her head at him. “Okay, fine. As long as you admit that all that complaining you did about him was actually some secretly serious sexual tension between you two.”

 

Derek growled, turning away to hide his blush, “shut up, Laura.”

 

Laura just laughed at him.

 

\--

 

“Wow, you weren’t kidding. He looks horrible.” Laura said, staring down at Stiles unconscious body.

 

Derek ran a hand over his face, “and people think I’m the asshole in the family.”

 

“I would never say that to his face!” Laura snapped back.

 

“You kind of just did,” a weak voice said.

Both Laura and Derek startled. “You’re awake?” Laura whispered. Derek could understand her confusion, Stiles heartbeat did not sound loud enough for him to be awake. That was not a good sign.

 

Stiles smirked at them - Derek was surprised he had the energy for it. “You don’t have to whisper, the nurses won’t be back for another half an hour, and my dad splurged for a private room. Something about his only son dying, or whatever.” Stiles coughed weakly after that statement, Derek winced. “What are you two doing here?”

 

“Um-” Derek looked at Laura with wide eyes. He had hoped they could get the bite over with, and then explain later if Stiles survived through it. He hadn’t expected the man to be awake.

 

“I’m here to give you the bite.” Laura said confidently. Stiles frowned in confusion, and Derek ran a hand over his face again.

 

“You came in here to bite me?”

 

“No, I came to give you ‘the bite’. I’m an Alpha werewolf, Derek and I are part of a pack of werewolves. The bite will turn you into a werewolf as well, hopefully. It might also kill you, but you’re dying anyway. If you survive the bite, the change will cure your cancer.” Laura explained, serious and straight faced. Derek was expecting a look of alarm, or at least another smile, but Stiles looked just as serious as he listened to Laura’s little spiel.

 

“Am I hallucinating?” Stiles asked.

 

“No,” Laura and Derek answered in unison.

 

“So you’re both werewolves, and you’re going to turn me into a werewolf too?”

 

“Yes.” Laura said.

 

“And I’ll be part of your pack?”

 

“Yes.” Derek said.

 

Stiles frowned. “But you hate me?”

 

“I-I don’t hate-” Derek started to say, but Laura cut him off.

 

“For Derek, anger and bickering is practically foreplay. And I’m pretty sure you constantly annoying him was your way of flirting too, right?”

 

Stiles hummed in reply, eyes assessing Derek. “You banned me from the shop.”

 

“I was having a bad day - I wasn’t actually going to enforce that.” Derek said, feeling sheepish.

 

Stiles watched him a moment longer, then he nodded. “Alright, bite me,” Stiles said, moving his arm slightly closer to them. Derek had a feeling he would have lifted it in offering if he had had the energy.

 

Laura nodded and instantly leaned down to bite him. It happened so fast, Derek almost missed it. Laura gently licked away the blood and then placed Stiles arm under his blanket.

 

“Wait, how did you decide so fast?” Derek asked as Laura started to pull him away.

 

Stiles shrugged, “why wouldn’t I decide this fast?”

 

Derek stared at the man lying in front of him. He wondered if he would ever fully understand him.

 

“We’ll come in to check on you tomorrow,” Laura said. “And we’ll help explain everything to your father if it works out.”

 

“Kay, later.” Stiles said, already closing his eyes and relaxing into the bed again.

 

Not goodbye, just see you later. Derek hoped he was right.

 

\--

 

Derek huffed as the entrance bell rang and Stiles came sauntering into the coffee shop. He glared at the man when Stiles grinned at him.

 

“You’re late,” Derek said, crossing his arms.

 

“Sorry, doctors appointment took longer than expected. They still don’t believe in my miraculous recovery. You would think after three months they would have accepted it by now” Stiles said, pushing open the door to the counter and slipping in beside Derek. “You can go and do your baking, I’ve got this covered.” Stiles said, pecking Derek quickly on the cheek before pushing him towards the back of the shop.

 

Derek grabbed his arms, glancing around to make sure none of the customers were watching before he leaned in and gave Stiles a proper kiss. Then he pulled away and shoved Stiles lightly towards the till, “get to work and stop goofing around.”

 

Stiles rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, “then you go start baking. I know how grumpy you get dealing with the customers.”

 

Derek growled, low enough not to be heard by the humans in the room, but it was playful. Stiles laughed in reply.

 

He finally pushed his way into the back room, heading to the cabinet to pull out the flour and sugar. With Stiles now in the pack, he was finally able to focus on the baking part of things instead of working with the customers all afternoon.

 

And Stiles could finally start living again. This time, without having to rely on pot to get him through the day.

 

Yes, with Stiles now in their lives Hales Coffee Beans had never been better.  
And neither had Derek.

 

\--

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated :)
> 
> [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://happyjuicyfruit.tumblr.com/)


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